Oprah ending talk show in 2011
Oprah Winfrey will announce on Friday’s “The Oprah Winfrey Show” that she will end her talk show, said a spokesman for Winfrey’s Harpo Productions. “Oprah will be ending her talk show,” Harpo spokesman Don Halcombe said Thursday. “She will be speaking about it on tomorrow’s live show.” The show will air live from its Chicago, Illinois, studio at 9 a.m. CT (10 a.m. ET), he said. The show will end on September 9, 2011, as its 25th season draws to a close, according to a letter from Harpo Inc. that President Tim Bennett addressed to partners and obtained by CNN affiliate WLS-TV. (Continue Reading…)

Murder, rape charges pending in Shaniya Davis case
Murder and rape charges will be filed against a North Carolina man in the death of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis, police said Thursday. Mario Andrette McNeill had already been charged with kidnapping the Fayetteville, North Carolina, girl. She was reported missing last week, and her body was found Monday beside a road near Sanford, about 30 miles northwest of Fayetteville. Preliminary autopsy results indicate the child was asphyxiated, Fayetteville Police Chief Tom Bergamine told reporters Thursday, but testing is still being completed and a final report has not been issued. (Continue Reading…)

Ex-NBA star Jayson Williams taking deal in shooting
Retired NBA star Jayson Williams has agreed to a plea deal that would send him to prison for up to three years for accidentally shooting a driver at his New Jersey estate in 2002, a person with knowledge of the case told The Associated Press on Thursday. Williams, who retired in 2000 after playing nine seasons in the NBA for the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets, was to face a retrial in January on a reckless manslaughter count. (Continue Reading…)

Chaney would yell at him in his own particular patois — an unapologetic stream of billingsgate far more creative than Marine drill instructors or master rappers. — George Vecsey, “Learning at Temple: Se Habla Chaneyism”, New York Times